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Archery Throughout the Centuries

In the notorious armies of the earlyheight. They held tournaments to encourage
civilizations, good archers were great assetsand test them for accuracy and precision.
and were usually used as the first offense.Soon after, they would train shooting arrows
Their arrows caused mass destruction on thewhile riding horses. And at a certain age,
battlefields and could topple large numbers.they would proceed to join the army.On the
Civilizations that held archers in highbattlefield, archers are faced with enemies
regard in their armies were the Greeks, thefrom all sides. A technique where an archer
Persians, the Parthian, the Chinese and theshoots two arrows at one time would bring
Indian armies. The famous phrase 'a partingdown the enemy's defenses. One arrow is shot
shot' actually originates from the a shootingon a high trajectory and the other at a lower
style wherein the rider turns in the saddletrajectory thus hitting the target on two
to shoot as he and his horse rode away fromdifferent angles. In addition, the
the enemy. This shot is called the 'Parthiandevelopment of the bodkin point gave their
shot.' Archers often rode on horseback andarrows the ability to penetrate deeper into
combined speed with close range like thethe enemy's armor.Longbows require a lot of
mythological characters of Apollo andskill and training before being able to shoot
Odysseus that are depicted using bows andan arrow and hit a target. This training
arrows riding horses and chariots. Othertook a lot of years. With the crossbow
archers are positioned in strategic places ofhowever, anyone can shoot an arrow, although
height increasing accuracy and effectivenessa little training is needed to hit a target.
of the shot.In Medieval Europe, however, theThis and the fact that the crossbow had the
archer's use in battle was not as significantsame penetrating power and range of the
and predominant as myth has it. In reality,longbow, made it useful in the early
bowmen were one of the lowest paid soldierscivilizations up to today. Unfortunately, it
in the army and were often just trainedtakes a significant amount of time to reload
peasants. The bow and arrow were labeled asan arrow compared to the longbow.In centuries
lower class weapons because they were cheapafter, the use of bows in the army became
to make compared to the very expensive armorobsolete with the development of firearms.
and swords that clad men-at-arms. This lowEven when bows had a longer range and could
value made the bow a mere toy of the nobilityreload faster than the first rifles, the
and peasants as well. The Vikings, however,penetrating power of a bullet and the minimal
saw the prowess of archery and made it one oftraining needed reigned supreme. In due
their foremost weapons in their expeditionstime, guns and bullets would defeat the bow
throughout Western Europe in the 9th and 10thand arrow in range, accuracy, proficiency and
centuries.Following this example, the Englishin reload time. Because of archery's decline
had learned to appreciate and hold in highin popularity, the 16th century English
regard the power of the bow and arrow. Inmonarch mandated that every man of fighting
the Hundred Years' War, the English deployedage practice archery and Henry VIII banned
huge numbers of archers using Englishall sport except archery during Sundays.
Longbows. This strategy gave them tacticalTheir efforts to preserve this fighting style
dominance. Seeing this much success, archershelped archery survive until the present day.
were soon recruited and farming peasantsIn this day and age, archery is no longer a
started training since childhood. Each boyweapon of war but a sport that is a true test
was given and trained with a bow of hisof precision and accuracy.



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